Kelly McParland: Republicans become the party of idea. Just the one

Republicans become the party of idea. Just the one

This may go down as the year the Republicans ceased being a party to be taken seriously.

It’s been a long slide. It didn’t begin this year, but has been ongoing, since at least George W. Bush days. Bush ran as a principled conservative, then fought two wars he couldn’t pay for, cut taxes he couldn’t replace and introduced a new drug program that had to be charged to the credit card. When the bottom fell out of the housing market the economy was in no shape to cope. Thus he handed over an economy in collapse. His fellow Republicans have been angry ever since that the Democrats haven’t been fast enough in fixing it, and won’t deploy the tactics popular among the ideologues who helped it happen in the first place.

If the start date of the party’s decline is imprecise, the low point (so far, anyway) must have been last week when House Speaker John Boehner demonstrated that not even a sympathetic fellow conservative such as himself could talk sense into his colleagues. Boehner was in the midst of what looked to be promising negotiations with President Barack Obama to head off the famed fiscal cliff and set the national budget on the road to improvement, if not necessarily full recovery. Just as the markets and other onlookers were daring to be optimistic, though, he suddenly produced what he called Plan B, and tried to hurry it through Congress. Why he would do that, when it still looked very likely that Plan A could be brought about, he hasn’t explained. When Plan B collapsed because other Republicans (we won’t even get into the Democrats) wouldn’t support it, he called them together and recited a prayer (“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…”) and told them to go home for Christmas. Who would fix the economy? “God only knows,” he said.

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Canada’s Liberal party has been going through a period of non-seriousness as well. It began near the end of Jean Chretien’s third majority. The Liberal wilderness was brought about by a lack of ideas. Since Chretien’s departure three full-time and a couple of interim leaders have presided over a period of no ideas. At the moment several candidates are seeking to become the fourth full-time post-Chretien boss, and have suggested some promising proposals. It’s up to the party now to actually adopt them and run a competent campaign on that basis.

The Republicans do have an idea. Unfortunately, they only have one: No taxes. No new taxes, no increased taxes. Ever, for any reason. Elected Republicans have signed up in droves to a pledge that commits them to oppose any and all increases in tax. The originator of the pledge is Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, who signalled that he could live with Plan B, even though it might, possibly, mean the richest people in the country might end up paying a bit more.

“Having finally seen actual legislation in writing, ATR is now able to make its determination about a legislative proposal related to the fiscal cliff. ATR will not consider a vote for this measure a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” he informed legislators, in the same manner the Pope might advise Catholics they may now use condoms without going straight to hell. In the Middle Ages, wars were fought over the right of the Pope to dictate to sovereign nations, but Republicans seem to see nothing amiss in having an unelected activist pass judgment on their obligations.

To be fair, not all Republicans are the same. There are still some moderates in the party, but they have, for the moment, been cowed into silence by the one-idea anti-tax mob. Boehner isn’t a core member of the mob, but his humiliation demonstrates how potent they remain. Plan B was designed wholly as a sop to them, as demonstrated by the fact it won Norquist’s approval. It protected those earning less than $1-million a year from any threat of an increase — “in fact, it permanently prevents them” noted Norquist — but it still failed. Republicans could have approved it and risked offending just a small fraction of 1% of the population. In 2010 there were just 268,000 tax returns stating income above $1-million, in a country of 311 million people. And quite a few of the people in that elite category had signalled that they recognized the need for some increase. The others would have likely voted Republican anyway if they voted at all, given the only alternative is the free-spending Democrats.

But they couldn’t bring themselves to do it. The radicals remain in control, and one idea is plenty for them. Maybe in the end it doesn’t matter, because until they get another idea they’re likely to remain out of power. Obama ran for re-election on a platform of higher taxes for the highest incomes, and won handily. His public support has improved as the cliff gets closer and Republicans continued to block him. This would suggest to most people that the majority of Americans are OK with limited tax increases as an alternative to renewed recession. But the Republican party as constituted at the moment doesn’t listen to the majority. They don’t have to. They have their idea and they’re sticking with it. Even if it means surrendering the right to be taken seriously.